In the late 1970's, with the future of Erie'seconomy looking less certain than it had beenin recent memory, the Erie Port Authoritybegan searching for ways

to

revitalize thearea,

<%

f

$

\

The plan which the organizers devised,known as the Erie Bayfront Redevelopmentproject, has been met with its fair share ofcriticism. Two Mercyhurst professors, his-tory instructor Richard Kubiak

and

geologist

Dr.

David Thomas, both oppose the plan

in

its

*

'status

quo*'

form. j

^85J75

.SsS

MA*

RichardKubiak:"Thisbay is nottheprior-ess of private people,

it

b the public's re-source" i

•

i

The organizers felt that Erie's days as athriving water port for industry were over andthat a new approach had to be taken in orderto put Erie "back on the

map"

in the north-eastern United States. Erie still had PresqueIsle State Park; a tourist

trap.

They viewed itas the keystone

to

reviving Erie.As

a

result,the project which we nowknow as the bayfront development plan wasborn.There are many who are very excitedabout the development project, such as theport authority. But, there are many, especiallyenvironmentalists, who oppose die develop-ment for one reason or another. Many of themdon't oppose the plan entirely but would liketo see some aspects of it done differently.

*

'Mostpeople would like to see some sortof proper development," Kubiak said. "Butwhat is proper development?

|

According

to

Kubiak, the bulk

of

thedevelopment is going

to

be marina areas andliving accommodations, i.e. condos. Thereare some proposed hotel and restaurant spacesand there are also plans for

a

big historicalfacility centered around the brigship Niagara.

*

"Taken individually, none of these pro-posals seem too

bad,"

he said. "The problemis Erie hasn't planned for the developmentThereis nogood, comprehensive planforthetotal development of the bayfront"They(developmentcoordinators)j

be-

lieve they have

a

comprehensive plan, butthey don't No one really knows what thatbayfront is going to look like."Kubiak stressed that

the

reason

for

his isbecause those who devised

the

plan were notqualified.I "Itwasdoneby planners of limited capa-bility who have absolutely no conception ofthe environmental needs

of

the area or theecosystem needs of the area," he said. "Tothem, the environment

is

there for them todevelop."

*

Kubiak feels that the developers aren'tlooking at the whole picture, and this couldcause problems."The key: flaw in this

is

the master planbecause they're only looking at this from anindividual point of view, in other words onedevelopment, thenanotherone next to

it,

thenanother.They haven t taken into considerationwhat kind of impact all of those developmentstogether will have on the environment"The best example of that is that no onehas ever considered what the carrying capac-ity of the harbor is

in

terms of the number ofboats." j

j£& 'I

|

Kubiak noted that there could be3,000new boat spaces on the bayfront"If we have that many more boats, therewill be a big problem with congestion in theboat channel,

9

*

he said.

*

'If there were a verysuddenstorm, wh ich Lake Erieis famous for,the channel would never be able to accommo-date the enormous number of boats trying tocome off the lake."It would be an unbelievable mess."Thomas noted that the boat situation canactually have a reverse effect on recreation inthe area.i"Youcan cause

a teacher* saide three mornings a week," Dr.Barbara Weigert, director of ele-mentary education said. It is asophisticated program** becausestudents are gradually main-streamed into teaching a wholeclass, Weigert

said.

1Dr. Barbara Weigert kept up todate on what we were doing. Hercomments were excellent Theybrought out my better qualities,"Sylvia McKce, a former student,said.

i

I

The Practicum Program doesn'tgive students a lot of opportunity todevelop

and

evaluate

their student-teacherrelationship.

"It'slikeaone

shot deal", said Sister PatriciaWhalen, Coordinator

off

the Pre-teaching Internship Program.In the Preteaching Internshipstudents go three consecutive daysso that they get a stronger feel of

what

the

classroom

is

like

and

whatthe art of

teaching

involves.*'During this program studentsmust keep a journal of their dailyexperiences

and

their reflections onthe art of teaching.

'.'On

Fridaymornings we have a seminar toprocess the experiences of he week,and the students submit

j

theirweekly journals,** Sister Whalensaid.

"I will

comment

in the

journalif

I feelit is

appropriate.'*^ . L.

^^Ttes^cfc^^whqWejgmvolved

in

1

secondary

|

student teaching,grades seven through twelve, mustmeet

two

separate student teachingrequirements, according to EdwardGallagher, director of secondaryeducation. Gallagher said studentsare assigned to a junior

high

formiddle school! and then a highschool with him as their primarysupervisor.

"Chicken* SoupMan,** as the students have nick-named Gallagher, checks to see ifthey need help. "This gives them

be

yours as an

Air

s not easy, but theare great. You'll haveForce advantagesdays of vacationeach year

and

commedical

care—and

much're a college graduatewill

be,

AIM HIGH

|

Force recruiter forabout

Officer

Tra

and pilot trainingGreg

Agen

-

633

- 7094

Colle

the the message that they have re-sponsibilities to

meet,**

Gallaghersaid.The biggest problem with theStudent Teaching Program is thecalendar system, according to SisterCribbins.

"We

had

no

input

for

the

change in

the

calendar- they didn'task

us,**

she said.Sister Cribbins added that stu-dents must have everything donebefore they do student teaching.are full-time students plus studentteaching, and; that is hard. Plus,many of our students have to dosome part-time work

to

meet finan-cial obligations,* * Sister Cribbinssaid. I

"When

you'restudent!teach-ing, the last

thing

you

want

to worryabout

is

taking

test,

when

you

haveto be making tests,'* Wasson said.

4

* It's not a good

calendar for theeducation department because our

Mercyhurst

student teacher Tracy Wasson with some

of her

students

at

Union City Middle School

They can't

come back

to take major students teach until the Christmasrequirements.'

*

In reality our kids break. Therefore, they have

to

takeevening courses. Splitting

up a

term

at

Christmas

doesn't seem

to

fit thelifestyles of students,'* SisterWhalen

said,

t

.

)

'sSister

Cribbins said that in thelast couple of years many adultstudents are coming back for certi-fication. Of 46 fall students ap-proximate! y five

percentwere

olderadults. The older adults may have

gone

through

college

from a liberalarts standpoint and now find theyare interested

in

teaching,** she said.

4

'The

calendar

was

purehell.""It was really tough, it was achallenge to get everything done.Some of the students had to take

courses

in

the evening,*' Majewskisaid. I

"The

demands placed on thestudent teachers were very great

—

trying to be a full-time teachertoward

the

end of their program as

well

as being a student on campus,''Gallagher

said.

. 5

J]

Wasson said

one

of

the

hardestthings for her

to

overcome

was

theminimal age

difference

between thestudents and her at East HighSchool. "Sometimes there's lessthan three years difference. Youhave to rememberyou^

a sum-mer writers' program. "The Sum-mer Writers' Institute is a special

interest of

mine," Schiff

says.

As

itsdirector, he explained that

the

pro-gram, starting; this summer, ismostly

for

high school students. But

he

added that it's open

to any

Mer-cyhurst students who want to par-ticipate. The program is designed to

<«

cultivate a student's proficiency inwriting short fiction and is like thecurrent writing fiction class."I like the lifestyle of being ateacher," says

Schiff,

45,

whoearned

his

Ph.D.

at

the University

of

Denver in

1987.

"Teaching is aprofession which should allow meenough time to do my

own!writ-

ing,'

he

adds.

He

also said

he

likesdealing with

ideas

and is especiallyhaving

a good

time teaching Ameri-can literature this term. "I like

the

life of the mind and being aroundyoung people. I forget temporarilythat I'm not," he said.

Schiff,

who taught English at

Anselm

College and New Hamp-

shire

College,

both

located

in

Man-chester,

N.H.-

has

Mother:

interestsbesides

writing

and teaching. He

goes to the YMC

A every morning at6:30 am.'

'I

jog or play racquet-ball," he

says.

"I try to do some-thing every day.*' He plays thebanjo. IPassing

Go

took Schiff about ayear to write. He said the bookfeatures a young adult

in

a sanitar-ium and is about, "the sanity ofinsanity." The young man in thebook

is

based on

his

brother.

"Mybrother had some hardtimes,

and

itis about

that,**

Schiff said.

The

book

has

a quote from oneof

Bob

Dylan's songs, "You Ain'tGoin' Nowhere," which shows

how he

views

the

protagonist in thebook "It's the notion that you ain't

goin

no where. Doesn't

that

say

it?"

he says.Schiff recalls the day his bookwas published. "It felt great," he

says.

He was at

a birthday party with

16

friends on a farm in Maine. Hereceived a phone call from NewYork announcing

that his

book

had

been published.

The

person on the

phone

in New

YOrk could hear

the

cheering on the other end

from

hebirthday party.

I Afterward

I wentfora

walk

and

smoked acigar," said

Schiff.

1 M

I

$

The reviews came soon after."They were positive reviews, so Iwas real pleased,'

*

he

says.

He gotan offer for a movie option and agood review from the

New York

Times

among

others.

[ $

Schiff

has

a single explanationfor why a writer writes. "It's whatI do best And I feel compelled towrite" he said. "It feels good tohave written, which isn't the samething as saying it's fun to write."Schiff said many people writetoday. "It

is

just about impossible toget

I

something

published,

unless

you

go

through

an

agent,'

*

he

adds,

and

even

then

he

says

the

prospects

were

very slim.Schiff

gave some

advice

to

po-tential! writers: "Write. Sit downand

i

write." He said writing is amatter of discipline.

A

person whowants

to be

a writer should write forseveral hours everyday,

and keep

atit, according to

Schiff.

Schiff is working on anotherbook, but like many writers hewouldn't divulge any informationon a work in progress.

APRIL 21,1988

The Merciad

PAGE3

Student addresses parking issues

DearMr.Oaik,

jI am acommuter student at Mercy hurst College

and

I d ike to

address

a

few problems

with thepresentparkins

arrangements.

i

First,

unless you have an

8:15

a.m. class, don't expect

to

find a parking place on campus.Second,

the

construction that is

going

on

is

a

big

hasde. I

realize

during construction there are

going to bea few

inconveniences.

What I cannot understand is putting dirt in.ar>arldng lot and maldng it look like

a

miniature

mountain.

M

The parking

was

congested before

they

decided

to

fill parking lot number seven (located off Briggs Ave.]with the

fill

dirt taken from the addition being put on to Zurn.

2*

I heard that prior

to the

start of the construction, President Garvey said there would

be no

inconveniences

Well I

am sorry

to

say there

are

many

inconveniences

to those of

us who

com mute. If Dr.

Garvey

finds

no problerr

with parking it's understandable, he

has

a reserved parking space on campus.I think it is time to remove

some

of that lovely

grass and

replace it with asphalt for more parking

on

campusSincerely,Daniel

J.

Church

M

Bayfront development

People are saying this is goingto be the salvation

of'the

city,**Kubiak

added.

"I don't think that'strue.

They're

talking about bringingpeople off Interstate

90

into

the

city.

•

4

The

ury is still

out on that

andI'd be very surprised if they hadenough of

the

kinds of things thatwould enable them to pull peopleoff the Interstate. I

think that's

apipedream."

i

Kubiak noted

that

in February, ascience advisory board consistingof 20 scientists, who have seendevelopments all across the basin,looked at the bayfront develop-ment

£

y

,

I i'

They

were appalled

at the

lackof planning/' he said.

They also

showed concern over

the

condition of

the

water.

* We have fish

with tumors," hesaid. "Eleven percent of bullheadcatfish have tumors. That percent-age is

much

too high to be a naturaloccurrence.

q

According to Kubiak, bullheads

are

a very good indicator species asto

the

health of the

fish

population."They are telling us that

there's

something wrong in that harbor,"he said.He feels that Erie should bedesignated

asian

area of concernalong

the

Great Lakes. It would be

the

43rd such designation,

t

"It

is the

first step to getting thewater cleaned up down there,'' he

said.

| -

Kubiak doesn't like

the

fact thatbecause of some of these projects,the public

will

no longer have freeaccess to many areas along thebayfront

i

I

. "This bay is not the prioress

of

private people, it is the public'sresource,'' he

said.'

The

public hasto have open and

free

access."I'm not opposed to develop-ing the area, I'm opposed to wallingthe

citizens offJwhat

happens if

some

kids want

to

go

fishing?

Sud-denly they won't be able to fishwhere they

were

once allowed

to.*'

If bill number

1685 J

passes,Kubiak feels it

will

set a dangerousprecedent because it will say, inessence, that there is nothing toprevent people

from

buying

a pieceof any

state

park.

4 4

There's simply

not

enough population

to support

many

of theprojects which the de-

velopers have

planned.

That's why somepeople are

talking

about the possibility ofputting in

casino-style

gambling.

5 9

4«T.>

According to Kubiak, there iscurrently a bill out, in which thedevelopers are requesting to pur-chase some dock tips. They alreadyacquired most of the dock, but the

tips

fall beyond aline drawn in

1843

which prohibits

4

development

be-

yond that point

Kubiakf

feels that too manypeople looked at non-Great Lakesdevelopment when they made thedecision

to develop

here.

He

addedthat they didn't take into account a

lotof

the

weather

problems synony-mous with the Great Lakes.

'

'The development needs to bescaledback,"

hesaid.

"It'sgoingtocome down to an economic deci-sion. The climate here prevents

a

lotof development possibilities.I

,*

"You have to be careful whatyou're developing.''Another problem, as Kubiaksees it, is the lack of people in this

area to keep

a project

like

this afloat"There's simply not enoughpopulation to support many of theprojects

which

the developers haveplanned," he said. "That's whysome people are talking about

die

possibility of

putting

in

casino-style

gambling."If you do that you've justcreated a situation for even

greater

corruption. I believe you will seecasino gambling eventually, andthat's a bad move."Regarding studies to determineif the

areas

for the project

are

safe tobuild on, Kubiak

said there

weren'tenough.

|

He said there were not enoughcore borings done at the variousproposed

development

sights to seeif there were any contaminants ortoxic materials of any kind.

jfrompg.l

According to Kubiak,

over a

S.S

mile area, there were 28 core bor-ings conducted,

most

of

which were

not properly

tested.

West of ParadeStreet he suggested boring every300 feet East of Parade Streetevery 100 feet

j*

' 'We need to

core

bore

at

every

sight" he

said,

M

a

good

idea

to clean

up

anddevelop,

but die

development needsto be

more

public-oriented."

"Speaking as a native, this is afilthy environment" Thomas of-fered.

"It

wouldn't

attract

anybody.If you want to make somethingreally ugly, you overdevelop.""Right now, Erierotten mess. Clean

r

___. ^

hell. We need a firm, sensitiveleader to tackle these problems.Pittsburgh

once had

a mayor, DavidLawrence,

who

did tackle the envi-ronmental questions

and

he cleanedPittsburgh up.""One thing is for certain,"Kubiak

added,''

today we should begetting rid of the pollution that'salready there

from

sewage."

" In

the shortterm,

development

will mean economic gain to some-body," Thomas said. "In the longterm, it

will

probably

mean an

eco-

nomic loss to the

community."

4 4

It was done by

plan-

ners

who have absolutely noconception of the environ-mental needs of the area.

J

9

As for the condominiums thathave

been

built at

the

mouth of thepeninsula, Kubiak noted that sincePresque Isle

has an

annual numberof tourists comparable to Yellow-stone National Park,

the

traffic isvery heavy and people who live inthose condos

will have trouble

get-

ting

out *

'.

"The weather is very harshdown there

in

winter," he added.

44

There should have been asection of

land

near the

cliff

side setaside for a park," Thomas said,noting that there's a

steep

cliff justsouth of

the

condominiums.

'

'The reason for

this is

becausein the long run, with a four-lanehighway with condos on the

cliff-

side, it's not going to be a pleasant

place

to live,'

*

he

said.'

The

condoswill depreciate."

At

Wit

9

End

BySteve Rush

Bull

n

Thomas feels that the develop-ers are "missing the boat" withrecreational development He feelsthe emphasis should

be

on develop-ing for the technological industry.We have an ideal chance toattract technological industry," hesaid. "We shouldn't stress recrea-tion. Building

and'developing

for

the

technologies should

be

stressed- for

die

year2,000.

4

m

They believe theyhave a comprehensive

plan,

but they

don't.

Nobody

* I

really knows what thatbayfront is going to look

like.

9 5

'

'This

can only be done by anexcellent higher education system."A good public school educa-tion system. I'm not interested inprivate schools, they're the ruina-tion of

the

publics.

•'

'Clean, paved streets and clean,well-kept business areas and qualitylaw enforcement

jWe

also need

solid,

intelligent leadership."Thomas presented what hetermed as a "master plan" for theErie community."Environment should be toppriority," he said. "I'm

no*

justtalking pollution, a good environ-ment starts in the home."From your back yard, thestreet in front of you,

all

disposalfacilities, municipal business andindustrialareas,andinally,schoolsand recreational facilities;Thomas feds that if